MBA Admissions: Good News, No News, and Bad News

Since November 1 I have heard from more and more nervous, round 1 MBA applicants, worried because they have not yet received an interview invitation. I am also starting to hear from those who were not and now realize they will not be invited to interview at particular schools, specifically Booth. (See "Gone Booth Gone" ).

What should you do now if you are among those who have not received interview invitations and don't expect to receive one? What if you are not optimistic about already submitted applications?

If you used the earlier round 1 deadlines to push the envelope a little and apply to programs where you chances of acceptance were lower, you can now proceed to Plan B and apply round 2 to programs where you are more competitive.

If you felt you are a competitive candidate at the programs you applied to and are surprised by the lack of interview invitations and the anticipated rejections, I encourage you to have one of your submitted applications evaluated. If you made mistakes in your essays or in assessing your strengths, you want to know about them before you submit your round 2 applications. Having us tell you how to improve is much cheaper and faster than receiving an additional rash of dings after round 2.

In either case, you have the time to develop solid applications before the early January deadlines -- if you start now. Here are a few resources to help you:

For those of you in proud possession of interview invitations, congratulations! The interview invitations, are not as good as acceptances (a few clients have already contacted us to share happy news of acceptances), but those invitations are defintely good news. You're getting closer.

After you interview, please share the experience by filling out the MBAIFDB questionnaire. In addition, all those who submit an interview report are eligible to participate in Acceptedcom's It's a 10! contest.

Whether you heard good news, no news, or bad news, remember the words of Louis Pasteur, "Chance favors the prepared mind."